Location
Puok District Town, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia
Community Description
Puok is a small district town, located about 13 km from the famous Angkorian Temple Complex, which includes Angkor Wat. Despite the tourism that the temples bring to the region, Siem Reap Province remains one of the three poorest provinces out of Cambodia’s twenty-four provinces.
Puok has the district’s main health center, a fairly large market and a very large high school with over 5,000 students that provides government education for many of the small towns and villages in the area. Puok also served as a refugee camp just after the Khmer Rouge period for the surrounding area.
The town is growing, and new businesses have been sprouting up since the paving of National Road 6, which serves to connect Cambodia to Thailand.
Puok district has nineteen villages with two communes and a total population of just over 20,000 people. In Siem Reap Province, over 51% of the population is below the poverty line.
According to 1998 statistics, the daily income was 1,035 reil/day
(approximately $0.246 a day).
The town has a small, privately owned, rudimentary water system that pipes water to the market area, houses near the market, as well as the Puok Health Center. However, the majority of the households in Puok get their water supply from individual wells.
Puok Health Center cares for on average 2,000 patients a month. The town water supply to the center is inconsistent, and periodically shuts off or runs out of water unexpectedly.
The health center and its three mid-wives, deliver about 50 babies per month for women who come from Puok District Town and the surrounding villages.
Cambodia’s infant mortality rate is 95/1,000 and the maternal mortality rate is 4/1,000.
Project Description
This project involves purchasing a 1,000-liter water tank and installing it at the Puok District Health Center to provide running water for the delivery room.
A support platform will be constructed, to provide the tank with the elevation needed for adequate water pressure, and the piping will be installed.
The tank will provide clean, gravity-fed, running water as well as extra water storage and easily-accessible water for use by the health care staff when delivering babies.
The community will contribute a portion of the labor, and $20 will be contributed by the Puok District Health Center.
This project to provide water for the delivery room was identified by the mid-wives, hospital director and health care staff to satisfy a critical need.
Project Impact
This project will benefit more than 600 women who use the delivery room each year, by providing them with clean and sanitary conditions during childbirth.
Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Stephanie Magedanz Bartsch
Comments
This project provides a simple solution to deliver an uninterrupted supply of water to the local health center. As a result, the basic and necessary sanitary needs in the delivery room, including washing hands, cleaning equipment, and washing the newborn and mother during childbirth, will be met.
Dollar Amount of Project
$500.00
Donations Collected to Date
$500.00 + additional donations for future projects
Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 – This project has now been fully funded, through the generosity of The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.
We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Stephanie Magedanz Bartsch of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Stephanie and/or those of her counterpart PCVs in Cambodia.
This project has been completed. To read about the conclusion of this project, CLICK HERE.